in the part of PA where I live, you can drive from Ohio to New York in about an hour, depending on traffic on I-90, might take hour and fifteen minutes. to go north to south from border to border would take about 3 hours on I-79. Now if you go east to west on I-80 now your talkin about 8-10 hours.

I remember my Maine History when Massachusetts was under a major land grab and us under their rule and in 1820 they lost that and we became our own state.

There is still talk from time to time to divide our state almost in half. This battle has been before Congress a few times and the State Legislature as well. Failed every time. The southern part does not want to let go of the north and because of the size of the population and delegate count, they make a stronger case for themselves. Meaning, we have the population, the money, the industry, the year round tourism, and it makes it hard for the north to compete against that which is mainly farm land, timber land, waterways, very little industry, for the most part only a two season tourism industry, small population count, small state delegate count, but both regions have a lot of seasonal homes.

I remember working one voter district and it would take almost 2 hours to go from one corner to the other because most of it was all back roads...no state highway system or interstate. This is when I was campaign manager for a person running for a county seat. Obviously when you run for a county seat you represent every town in the county and therefore must campaign every town in the county...all 29 towns. I like my current district...only 4 towns stretched out over maybe 40 minutes.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

Well I was talking to a friend of mine who really liked our cappuccino machine I bought and thought we needed a much better coffee brewer system and got us a three brewer system that brews it into these canisters like you see in the c-stores. He also got us a bunch of Green Mountain Coffee. I chose Decaf, Regular, and Dark Roast or High Octane for those late going mornings. He even had his guys install the whole system for nothing and gave us 6 cases of coffee for nothing. He also gave us a three year supply on water filters. They will last us longer than that because we are pretty much idle for three months out of the year.

Upon some negotiating with him, he is going to give us the same setup of a cappuccino machine and the same three brewer coffee system with all the coffee with all the same amounts of coffee for the 5 point club and he is going to get us the same flavors for the cappuccino machine. Now you might be asking what did you guarantee this guy in return. Well I have to get him 5 gallons of 100% pure Vermont Maple Syrup. My aunt owns a business that sells Vermont Maple Syrup to stores and restaurants in her area of the state. He also wants to spend the final week with us in the 5 point club.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

Well I have no excuses, so I am not going to make any up. I will just leave it alone.

I am already thinking about breakfast for the crew in our crowded little club this morning. And something I had to give away made me remember what I was carrying in the motorhome. I picked up 10 gallons of 100% Pure Maple Syrup from Vermont that my Aunt had at her farm store.

So that got me to thinking. Waffles and pancakes. I have strained some blueberry juice to add to some of the syrup and then there is another one where I strained raspberry juice into it. I also have just the plain syrup. So you will have three choices of syrup...Grade A Medium Amber, then there is that with blueberry, or raspberry.

Time to tap that cappuccino machine for some hot chocolate this morning, but the egg nog sounds good. I used to work for a company that installed these and sold the mix flavors. I can't wait to put in some peppermint stick. They have some really outrageous flavors and some that are really really good.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

The news report just showed up for the people who won that $8.2 million megabucks jackpot this summer.

They are taking the one lump sum which is $4.1 million as the rest goes towards taxes...how sweet. All they are going to do is buy two new vehicles and a new snowblower so the dog can get around the yard easier in the winter months. The rest they are going to give away to their four kids and 14 grandkids.

They will also set a small amount aside to cover the taxes for those new vehicles and if anybody knows anything about registering a vehicle in Maine that is expensive to do. Three years ago when my father registered his base model Chevy pickup, it cost more than $700 and this year it cost more than $400. They say that he will bottom out at around $200 at the six year mark.

They have been playing the lottery for 13 years at $4 per week and have spent $2480. I would say it paid off in the long run and that they finally saw a return in their investment....a huge return. They are both retired and have already been everywhere they want to go, their home is paid for and have no more unfulfilled dreams. So now they are just going to give almost all of it away and start playing the lottery all over again.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

The first 20% is kept by the lottery for taking the one lump sum. The other 30% is paid by them in taxes in one lump sum.

As I understand it, trust funds are not subject to income tax unless you start to withdraw from them. They were talking of Trust Funds for all those and not to be touched for at least 5 years and then they could not take out more than 4% a year.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.